Thursday, February 09, 2017

Follow the money

During the Watergate scandal, reporter Bob Woodward at one point said to Senator Sam Ervin: "The key was the secret campaign cash, and it should all be traced."

In the movie "All The President's Men," this became "Follow the money." And, indeed, cash explains so much. Whatever you think about the people who voted for President Trump, the first thing you should consider is that they were "voting their pocketbooks." James Carville, Bill Clinton's campaign strategist, expressed it as, "It's the economy, stupid."

Why is Washington State mounting such a vigorous challenge to President Trump's executive order temporarily suspending non-American entry from seven terrorism-plagued countries? Of course there are several lawsuits against the president, and there are lots of motives among the various litigants. But Washington State's is the suit that stopped the order, at least temporarily. And a look at the state's case suggests that, behind high-minded rhetoric about religious liberty and constitutional protections, there is a lot of money at stake.

Judging by the briefs filed by Washington State, as well as statements made by its representatives, some of the state's top priorities in challenging Trump are: 1) To ensure an uninterrupted supply of relatively low-wage H-1B foreign workers for Microsoft and other state businesses; 2) To ensure a continuing flow of high-tuition-paying foreign student visa holders; and 3) To preserve the flow of tax revenues that results from those and other sources.

“I felt like I was more of a salesman sometimes, to sell abortions,” said Marianne Anderson, a former Planned Parenthood nurse. “We were told on a regular basis that you have a quota to meet to keep this clinic open.” Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood manager in Storm Lake, Iowa, explained that if her center met its quota for abortion referrals, employees would be rewarded with pizza parties, paid time off, and other rewards.

School choice offers parents the possibility to opt their children out of a system of education that, while it is remarkably substandard at producing contributing citizens, is remarkably adept at producing activist drones for progressive causes, and forcibly redirecting millions in public dollars towards unnecessary and even counterproductive public employees who reliably vote and agitate Left, and to unions and other leftist organizations that funnel that money directly back into the Democratic Party.:

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) have each benefited from contributions from the National Education Association. Collins received $2,000 from the union in 2002 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Murkowski, meanwhile, has received $23,500.

Elizabeth Warren:

This holier than thou U.S. senator allowed Harvard Law School to think of her as a native American when it needed to fill its quota, for which she was paid $429,981 a year.

Liberal billionaire George Soros gave former Vice President Al Gore’s environmental group millions of dollars over three years to create a “political space for aggressive U.S. action” on global warming, according to leaked documents.